Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A novel ofappetite and excess, Noley Reid sPretendWeAreLovelydetails a summer in the life of the Sobel family in 1980s Blacksburg, Virginia seven years after the tragic and suspicious death of a son and sibling.
Francie Sobel dresses in tennis skirts and ankle socks and weighs her allotted grams of carrots and iceberg lettuce. Semi-estranged husband Tate prefers a packed fridge and secret doughnuts. Daughters Enid, ten, and Vivvy, thirteen, are subtler versions of their parents, measuring their summer vacation bymeals eaten or skipped. But at summer's end, secrets both old and new come to the surface and Francie disappears leaving the family teetering on the brink.
?Without their mother's regimental love and with their father floundering in his new position of authority, the girls must navigate their way through middle school, find comfort in each other, and learn the difference between food and nourishment.
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Synopsis
Francie Sobel dresses in tennis skirts and ankle socks and weighs her allotted grams of carrots and iceberg lettuce. Semi-estranged husband Tate prefers a packed fridge and secret doughnuts. Daughters Enid, ten, and Vivvy, thirteen, are subtler versions of their parents, measuring their summer vacation by meals eaten or skipped. But at summer's end, secrets both old and new come to the surface and Francie disappears leaving the family teetering on the brink. Without their mother's regimental love and with their father floundering in his new position of authority, the girls must navigate their way through middle school, find comfort in each other, and learn the difference between food and nourishment.
Synopsis
It's the summer of 1982 in Blacksburg, Virginia--seven years after the suspicious death of a son and sibling--and the Sobel family is hungry.
Francie dresses in tennis skirts and ankle socks and weighs her grams of allotted carrots and iceberg lettuce. Her semi-estranged husband Tate prefers a packed fridge and hidden doughnuts. Daughters Enid, ten, and Vivvy, almost thirteen, are subtler versions of their parents, measuring their summer vacation by meals had or meals skipped. But at summer's end, secrets both old and new emerge and Francie disappears, leaving the family teetering on the brink.
Told from alternating points of view by the four living Sobels, Pretend We Are Lovely is a sharp and darkly funny story of forgiveness, family secrets, and the losses we inherit. At its core is the ever-complicated and deeply-devoted bond of sisterhood as the girls, left mostly to their own devices, must navigate their way through middle school, find comfort in each other, and learn the difference between food and nourishment.